And the Lord said, Let the Kids Come to Me
by Defiant-Dreams
Summary: Wherein Castiel is the new kid and Michael and Lucifer are joining the big boys' class. Kid AU. Sam and Dean have a part-time job in a day care. GEN.


__**Kids. I love kids. I currently have a baby sister and I'm still heavily amused by her, so yeah. Haha!**

_February 27, 2011._

"Hi. I am Cassiel." His newest charge said. Dean blinked and laughed outright as the recently turned 4 year old introduced himself with a lisp to one of the oldest kids in the room—6 and 5 months old Gabriel.

"He means Castiel." Dean said gently as he ruffled the really small kid's hair. Gabriel stared at Castiel—Cas, Dean decided. That was going to be the new kid's name—and then at Dean. He blinked up at him calculatingly and then fixed his gaze somewhere to his right.

"I think Sammy needs you." The 6 year old said sweetly. Dean rolled his eyes, knowing that Gabe wanted something. He turned to look behind him, quirking an eyebrow at Sam who had three kids on his lap and a colorful book in his hands. 2 more—Jo and Anna—were looking over his shoulder as they tried to see the pictures.

Sam looked up the moment Dean grinned, feeling the amusement in them without even looking. He grinned and gave the kids a meaningful look which obviously meant, _'A little help here?'_Dean gave him an amused smirk and nodded. He turned back to Gabriel and Castiel—only to find the two of them long gone.

He blinked. "Gabe? Cas?" He called out. Michael, the eldest in the room of the 4-6 year olds, tugged on his pants. "Gabe's playing with blocks on the mat with the new kid." He told Dean seriously. Dean glanced toward the mats and found that, yes, Gabriel was building a tower with Castiel, talking loudly as he did so. Dean turned back toward Michael. "Thank you. You wanna read with me and Sammy, Michael?"

Michael blinked up at him. He frowned a bit. "I can read by myself." He said. "I told you that already." He said as he gave Dean a small grin. Dean laughed. "Yeah. Listen, I'm going to help Sam with the 5 year olds, okay?" He said. Michael nodded and immediately left. Dean watched him and smiled sadly. Kid grew up too fast. Maybe that had to do with the absent father.

He shook his head and walked over to Sam. As he scooped Jo and Anna towards his chest and plopped down in front of Sam, he chuckled. Oh, how he loved working part-time at the day care center. This was definitely the best summer job ever.

* * *

_February 28 2011_

Chaos. Everywhere. Ugh. It probably stared out normal, Dean amended. But then Lucifer started blabbering something in his and Michael's language that only they could understand—Michael told him it was Angelic once. And… that wasn't really believable. Michael had seemed almost insulted at whatever Lucifer said and then they both started fighting.

The only reason Dean even knew about that was because Gabriel walked up to him, Castiel in hand. "Michael and Lucifer are really noisy. Castiel doesn't like it. Sammy said to get you." Gabriel had said. Castiel nodded seriously. Dean had blinked at that and dropped his bag near Sam's before motioning the two kids to come with him.

The moment he opened the door, he winced. Sam had a kicking Lucifer by his waist, trying not to drop him as he struggled to go after his twin, Michael. Michael was just sitting there, glaring up at Lucifer as he said something in that weird language of theirs. "Dean! A little help here?"

Dean jogged over to Sam, Michael and Lucifer, picking the stoic Michael up easily. Michael settled his head on his shoulder and Dean sighed as he felt Michael start crying quietly into his shoulder. He gave Sam a meaningful look and then looked at the toy cars that were littered near them.

_Play with Lucifer. Talk to him._Dean mouthed before he readjusted Michael and brought him to the quiet reading area where kids only came to when one of the caretakers were there. He smiled at Sophia and she smiled back before glancing to the curled up Michael. Seeing him, her eyes flickered to Dean's and then picked up Leo—who she was previously reading to—and told him gently that he was going to play with the other kids and her. Leo nodded enthusiastically, forgetting about the princess and the knight in an instance.

Dean carefully pulled Michael away from him and settled him on the pile of pillows. The moment Michael was forced to unhide his face, he wiped at his cheeks quickly. "What happened, Mike?" He said softly. Michael hiccupped. "Lucifer thinks daddy's job's useless, since he's helping people who aren't even going to be all famous and stuff—like dad." Michael murmured.

"Did your dad come home?" Dean asked, frowning a bit. Michael and Lucifer's dad was like the most generous, helpful and successful man in the universe. And Lucifer thought that was worthless? All his hard work? Michael nodded. "So then I told Lucifer that he wouldn't know. _He_wasn't famous."

Dean nodded slowly. Well… Lucifer was, in a way, famous. "And Lucifer didn't like that?" He said. Michael nodded. "He said that he just loved daddy and wished he was home more often."

"Don't you wish that too?" Dean asked, tilting his head a bit. Michael's lip wobbled. "Of course I do! But I know that daddy's doing good things and that he loves us and misses just as much as we miss him. And he calls! He's trying his best." Michael said defensively, pouting as he did so.

Dean sighed. "Maybe that's just not enough for Lucifer. Maybe he doesn't feel how much your daddy loves the two of you because it looks like he loves his work more."

Dean should know. That's how Sammy always feels.

* * *

_March 1 2011_

Michael and Lucifer are okay again. Maybe that's only temporary, but hey, it's better than nothing. It's their birthday today. March 1. Well. Not really. They were born on February 29, but it's 2011 and _not_a leap year, so they had to settle with that.

This was their last day in the care of Dean, Sam, Sophia, David, Lucia and Terry. The 5 of them pretended not to notice when Terry started crying a bit because she loved Michael and Lucifer ever since she met them a year ago. Except Lucia though. She teased Terry—which oddly enough, made Terry feel a little better.

Dean watched Gabriel bounce to the two of them. Dean frowned when he saw that Gabriel's 'favoritest person in the world' (AKA Castiel) wasn't here yet. Usually, the little kid was the first to come, since his mom worked early hours.

He gave the three of them an amused look that none of them saw as they talked about something that looked really serious. Terry plopped beside him and Dean refrained from wincing in surprise. "Hey." She said cheerfully, her gave fixed on Michael, Lucifer and Gabriel.

Dean grinned at her in reply. "I don't know you put up with Lucia." He said. Terry shrugged, biting her lower lip a bit. "She's not that bad." She said quietly. And then she grinned. "I don't know how you put up with _Sam._"

Dean chuckled. "Yeah. I don't know how I put up with my _annoying little brother._" He said loudly so that Sam, who was playing with Ruby, a 5 year old, could hear. Sam scowled at him good-naturedly before going back to teaching Ruby how to play one of those nursery rhymes on the xylophone.

"But really," Terry said. Dean turned back toward her, "Lucia's not that bad. She's really awesome." Terry said defensively.

Dean raised an eyebrow. "I'd rather trust my own judgment than a 13-year old's." He said. Terry gave him a look over her glasses before she punched his shoulder. "Oh shut up. You're just 17. That's only 4 years older than me." She said, before _accidentally_ stepping on his hand and then skipping to where the reading section was. Which was _coincidentally_where Lucia was.

Dean grinned before turning back in front of him just to see a group hug between Michael, Lucifer and Gabriel. Lucifer was loud enough that he heard the, "Since you're the oldest now, you have to take care of them, Gabe."

Gabriel nodded seriously, looking a little doubtful at his competence when he realized how big the responsibility Michael and Lucifer had passed on to him.

"I'll try my best. I'll see you tomorrow in school, right?" Gabriel said. Michael and Lucifer both nodded at the same time and Gabriel grinned brightly. "Awesome."

Has Dean ever said how much he _loved_ working in the day care center?


End file.
